With 189 member countries, staff from more 170 countries, and offices in over 130 locations, the World Bank Group is a unique global partnership: five institutions working for sustainable solutions that reduce poverty and build shared prosperity in developing countries.

Experts And Leaders

The World Bank Group works in every major area of development. We provide a wide array of financial products and technical assistance, and we help countries share and apply innovative knowledge and solutions to the challenges they face.

Country Groups

Global data and statistics, research and publications, and topics in poverty and development

We face big challenges to help the world’s poorest people and ensure that everyone sees benefits from economic growth. Data and research help us understand these challenges and set priorities, share knowledge of what works, and measure progress.

The World Bank Group is hosting its second annual Youth Summit, in partnership with the Office of the United Nations Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth. This year's event will focus on increased youth engagement in issues relating to government transparency, accountability, and collaborative governance. The event is free of charge.

If you're not able to attend the event in person, join us onWorld Bank Live starting at 9AM EST on October 7. Make your voice heard and send your questions and comments!

Increased government openness is crucial to earning back the trust of young people. Perceptions of corruption, inefficiencies, and bad management have resulted in a lack of trust in governments. With increasing inequality, unemployment, and lack of sustainable solutions, this perception is especially true amongst youth who feel their voices are often overlooked, disregarded or shut out of government decision-making processes. As those who have the most to lose by inheriting corrupt systems and non-open governments, young people have the incentive to create and seize the necessary tools to become actively engaged in government decision-making, which could result in greater transparency, accountability and better opportunities in their future. Around the world youth are standing up against corruption, demanding open governments, honest decision-making and active engagement.

With this in mind, the Youth Summit 2014 aims to convene young civil society and NGO leaders, students, government officials, technical experts and practitioners to focus on how we, the youth, can help governments become more open and responsive. The sub-themes of the Summit will focus specifically on transparency, accountability and collaboration, measures understood to end corruption and promote open and responsive governments.

To achieve this goal, the one-day Summit will be composed of high-level plenary discussions and targeted workshops. The Summit is envisioned to be engaging and innovative in leveraging the experience and expertise of participants, speakers, and workshop facilitators in an interactive setting. For this reason, this year’s Summit will crowdsource workshop session proposals whereby organizations from around the world working on governance, anti-corruption, and other related fields are welcome to submit a proposal.

About Us

Established in 2013, the Youth Summit serves as a platform for conversation and action to make the World Bank Group more relevant to the global youth and to better involve young people in the work of the World Bank Group. The Youth Summit Organizing Committee is comprised of young World Bank Group employees and is supported by World Bank Group senior management.

The first Youth Summit was held in October 2013 and emphasized youth entrepreneurship, revitalizing a new chapter of World Bank Group involvement and engagement with a dynamic generation of young entrepreneurs, activists, development professionals, and others interested in global youth-related issues. It convened over seven hundred people and provided an opportunity for youth around the world to submit solutions to challenges faced by international organizations. Building on the accomplishments from last fall and responding to the overwhelmingly positive feedback received after the event, it was decided the Youth Summit would be hosted on an annual basis.

Last Updated: Oct 06, 2014

Perceptions of corruption, inefficiencies and bad management have resulted in a lack of trust in governments. This is especially true amongst youth who feel their voices are often overlooked, disregarded or shut out of government decision-making processes. As those who have the most to lose by inheriting these systems, young people have an incentive to create and seize the necessary tools to become actively engaged in the process, which would result in greater government transparency, mechanisms for accountability and deeper collaboration. Overwhelmingly, youth around the world want open and transparent governments, and therefore, increased government openness is crucial to earning back the trust of young people. The Youth Summit Organizing Committee, together with the U.N. Secretary General’s Envoy for Youth and the World Bank Governance practice, has put together this one day summit to explore how youth can contribute to the current policy discussions as well as provide tools to equip young leaders to help foster open and responsive governments in their community.

Last Updated: Sep 26, 2014

Participant applications for the Youth Summit 2014 are now closed. Selected applicants will be notified by Monday, September 22nd. We would like to remind you that there is no fee associated with participating in the event. Please note that due to the grassroots nature of this initiative we are unable to provide financial support towards travel and accommodation.

For all those who are unable to attend the event in person, we cordially invite you to participate virtually via the World Bank Livestreams and interactive chat sessions which will be streamed on Tuesday, October 7, 2014 beginning at 9:00 AM EST.

SPEAKERS

Ahmad Alhendawi

UN Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth

Ahmad Alhendawi of Jordan is the first-ever United Nations Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth. He assumed office in February 2013.
A strong youth advocate at the national, regional and international levels, Mr. Alhendawi is described by the UN Secretary-General as “the youngest senior official at the United Nations". He previously worked as the Youth Policy Advisor in the League of Arab States. Prior to this, he served as a Team Leader for the National Youth Policy Project in Iraq, a Youth Programme Associate at the Iraq office of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and as the Emergency Programme Officer at the non-governmental organization Save the Children.

Mario Marcel Cullell

Senior Director, World Bank Governance Global Practice

Prior to his role at the World Bank Group, Mario served as the Deputy Director for Public Governance and Territorial Development at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). He also previously worked at the Inter-American Development Bank where he was Executive Director for Chile and Ecuador and Manager of the Institutional Capacity and Finance Sector.
Mario began his career in academia, where he held several teaching and research positions across universities in Chile and the United Kingdom. For 12 years he worked for the Government of Chile, holding senior positions at the Ministry of Finance including Executive Secretary for the Inter-Ministerial Committee for the Modernization of Public Administration, Chair of the Internal Audit Committee, Chair of the Advisory Committee on Pension Reform, and Director General of Budget for six years. In the early 2000's he led innovative work in the design of a structural budget fiscal rule in Chile in parallel with Sweden and Switzerland, which was later expanded to more than 30 countries.
He holds an M.Phil. in Economics from the University of Cambridge, and a BA in Economics and in Commercial Engineering from the Universidad de Chile.
Connect with him on Twitter: @mariomarcel22

Nicholas Bian

Nicholas Bian is a Knowledge and Learning Analyst in the Europe & Central Asia (ECA) region and is part of the Junior Professional Associate program at the World Bank Group. Mr. Bian’s background in corruption prevention and public sector integrity is utilized by supporting projects in Moldova and Azerbaijan on social accountability and information transparency. Prior to joining the Bank, Mr. Bian worked as a junior policy analyst at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) where he was a contributing author on several publications on lobbying reform, whistleblower protection and conflicts of interest. Mr. Bian holds a Master’s degree in International Affairs specializing in Governance and Public Policy from the American University in Paris, and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Westmont College

Nigel Chapman

Chief Executive Officer, Plan International

Nigel Chapman joined Plan International as Chief Executive Officer in April 2009 following a career in news and current affairs broadcasting with the BBC spanning more than 30 years and also a long association with Plan, as Chair of the Plan UK Board.
Nigel was Director of the BBC World Service from 2004 to 2009, having overall editorial leadership and management of the world's leading international radio broadcaster. He directed the launch of BBC Arabic TV in 2008 and Persian TV in 2009. He also oversaw a big increase in the World Service’s radio audience to over 180 million listeners a week. In addition, Nigel was also Chair of the BBC World Service Trust (now called Media Action).

Nur Laiq

Nur Laiq is the author of Talking to Arab Youth: Revolution and Counter-revolution in Egypt and Tunisia (International Peace Institute, 2013) and co-editor of The Search for Peace in the Arab-Israeli Conflict (Oxford University Press, 2014). Nur was the social media chief content officer for the Indian National Congress Party in the 2014 general election campaign. Prior to this, she was a senior policy analyst at the International Peace Institute in New York. Here, she headed the Arab Youth Project, which engaged with youth activists and politicians in the MENA region. The project provided recommendations to the UN and member states on the political and socio-economic inclusion of youth. Nur has also also worked on foreign policy at the European Commission in Brussels and with a Labour Member of Parliament in London. Nur has given talks on youth empowerment and good governance in the Middle East and South Asia at the United Nations, Columbia University, London School of Economics, National University of Singapore and Oxford University among others. Nur is from India and grew up between New Delhi and London. She has also lived in Brussels, Damascus, New York and Tehran. She has written articles for Caravan, The Guardian, The Indian Express and The New Statesman. While living in New Delhi she worked as a volunteer with Afghan refugees during the late 1990s. She received her MPhil in Modern Middle Eastern Studies from Oxford University in 2005.

Raphael Obonyo

Raphael Obonyo is a youth advocate at the national, regional and international levels. Mr Obonyo is the external adviser, UN Habitat’s Youth Advisory Board, and Africa’s representative in the World Bank’s Global Coordination Board on Youth and Anti-Corruption. He is the co-founder and a member of the Advisory council of the Youth Congress, a premier youth-led organization in Kenya. He has extensive knowledge and experience in public policy, international development, political economy, governance and human rights. In 2013, the Global Diplomatic Forum named Mr. Obonyo as one of the Global Young Diplomats. He is 2014 Crans Montana’s New Leader of Tomorrow. He holds a Masters in Public Policy from Duke University. He is a Ford Foundation Fellow.
Email: raphojuma@hotmail.com

Sandra Moscoso

Program Lead, Global Media Development Programme, World Bank Group

By day, Sandra is the deputy program lead of the World Bank’s Global Media Development Programme, a partnership-driven initiative which focuses on information and media as drivers of social accountability and good governance. Sandra also launched and managed the World Bank’s Open Finances program (https://finances.worldbank.org), where she worked to open financial data, make it digestible, and supported the use of open data in development. She has worked on open data efforts in Kenya, Moldova, Afghanistan, Nigeria, and across Latin America. By night, Sandra works on local community efforts related to schools (https://chpspo.org) and education (http://greatergreatereducation.org/), active transportation, and open government (http://codefordc.org/). For this work, the Sunlight Foundation recognized Sandra as an Open Gov Champion. Prior to the World Bank, Sandra worked as a change management consultant for enterprise systems implementations. A graduate of James Madison University, Sandra lives in Washington, DC with her husband, two children, and the 'village' that makes every-day life possible.

Santosh Acharya

Santosh Acharya is a young activist who has been working on youth issues in Nepal for eight years. He is a member of the Global Youth Anti-Corruption Network (GYAC) and supported the design and implementation of several youth focused transparency and accountability programs. In 2013, he led Restless Development’s national youth consultations on Post-2015, mentored facilitators and participated in the coordination of several regional and local consultations. Santosh is the president of Youth Initiative and currently representing the Association of Youth Organisations in Nepal.

Sara Moore

Sara Moore began working with Plan international USA in 2004 when she was just eleven years old participating in the Youth United for Global Action’s summer camps and development education programmes. In 2012 was selected to join Plan’s Global Youth Advisory Panel where she continues to play an integral role to ensure children and young people’s voices are heard in Plan’s governance and decision making. Sara also represents the Global Panel at Plan’s highest decision making body, the Members Assembly.

Join us! The Youth Summit Online Community is a collaborative platform to connect youth and partner institutions around the world to share challenges, resources, and ideas thus becoming a part of a global youth movement to end poverty and promote shared prosperity. Here you can access:

follow us

newsletter

You have clicked on a link to a page that is not part of the beta version of the new worldbank.org. Before you leave, we’d love to get your feedback on your experience while you were here. Will you take two minutes to complete a brief survey that will help us to improve our website?

Feedback Survey

Thank you for agreeing to provide feedback on the new version of worldbank.org; your response will help us to improve our website.

What was the purpose of your visit to worldbank.org today?

Did the layout and navigation of the new site help you locate what you were looking for?
Yes
No

Do you have any other feedback on the new version of our website? (Optional)

If you are willing to be contacted in the future to help us improve our website, please leave your email address below.

Which of the following best describes your career field or organization?
Student
Academic/Professor
Government Employee
Media Organization
Multilateral Organization
NGO or Nonprofit
Private Sector Firm
World Bank Group
Other

How often do you visit the World Bank website?
This is my first time
Daily
About once a week
About once a month
Every six months or less often

Thank you for participating in this survey! Your feedback is very helpful to us as we work to improve the site functionality on worldbank.org.